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Square Register

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Re: Square Register

#51

Post by _wo6a »

kefs wrote: post #19

I don't like how, as the customer, I have no way of seeing what exactly is being charged to my card. For all I know, anything could be running on that ipad (foreground or background) and i could be charged any amount without knowing. Sure, I can ask for a receipt, but even the legacy till they replace in the video has a customer facing display, not a shiny piece of aluminum with some fruit. It's interesting that vide…

I used to work at a retail outfit that used the really old-fashioned credit card system involving carbon paper slips and handwritten amounts, which would be entered into a credit card processing system at another location at a later time. We could have essentially charged whatever amount we wanted, and this was fairly apparent to anyone who paid via credit card. And yet, out of every thousand people who go to pay with a credit card, I could probably count on one hand the people who express any serious concern about this fact.

Businesses have an incentive in maintaining their reputation and not getting into trouble with payment processors, and I generally think people assume any business approved by a payment processor is probably sufficiently low-risk to give a credit card.

Re: Square Register

#52

Post by dakrisht »

kirillzubovsky wrote: post #38

I wonder what Jack Dorsey is thinking, while reading of all these. I seriously doubt he worries about "...one retailer and they weren't using the device because the square was too wonky ..." It just sounds like a problem too easy to fix, and I am sure they've got bigger fish to fry.

Dorsey is definitely reading, or I certainly hope he is!

Good information here. Lot's of valid points, complaints, arguments. There are many ways to improve Square, the UI, the hardware, the usability, training, etc. They have a solid product.

Re: Square Register

#54

Post by allenc »

zbrock wrote: post #33
andyfleming wrote: post #5

Awesome to see Square continuing to progress forward on a regular basis! The register app looks great! Does anyone know if it works well (or at all) with multiple iPads? Can you view/manage the inventory online?

We sync your items, settings and payment history between multiple devices. That was...not easy.

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. =)

Re: Square Register

#56

Post by hsshah »

hansy wrote: post #42

Did anybody go through the verification process when ordering the device? After I input some basic info (like my birthday and last 4 digits of my SSN), I was asked to answer questions I have no idea how they even came up with. One example is, "What hospital did you live near when you were on RandomName St.?" How did they immediately know what street I lived on some years back, and also that it was near a major hospit…

They must be using KBA (knowledge based authentication) service for identity checks. There are data aggregator companies (big ones are the credit bureaus but there are others as well) who compile all sorts of orthogonal data points about you (like the color of your first car, your mortgage amount) and in theory generate identity check questions that only the real you can answer all of them correctly. Some more info: http://www.rsa.com/press_release.aspx?id=9459

Re: Square Register

#57

Post by theneb »

ssn wrote: post #55

Any update on when this will be available in european countries?

I'm hoping from the November press release they're moving international this year. They took on Branson as an investor too.

Re: Square Register

#58

Post by rplnt »

modeless wrote: post #15
tricolon wrote: post #6

One piece is missing: a much more robust card reader that doesn't swivel or threaten to snap in two after a day of swiping.

I noticed a local business (Blue Moon Burgers) using iPads as registers, using similarly flimsy (though not Square) card readers. They gave up after a few months and switched to a traditional POS setup. I don't know whether it was the card readers that were to blame, but I'm guessing they were part of it.

External card reader would be much more expensive because it has to (IIRC banks enforce it (probably thanks to insurance companies)) encrypt all communication with the "register" (in this case iPad). So it can't be just some dummy device.

Re: Square Register

#59

Post by disappearance »

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but desensitising the general public to devices that their card is being scanned through (and occasions where that might be appropriate) will surely lead to to an increase in card fraud.

What's to stop someone jailbreaking an ipad, writing a custom fake ui, clipping in a square scanner, and writing off a days worth of cheap merchandise down at the park for a haul of card details?

If this becomes common, will credit card companies still offer the same guarantees on transactions?

Re: Square Register

#60

Post by dangrossman »

disappearance wrote: post #59

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but desensitising the general public to devices that their card is being scanned through (and occasions where that might be appropriate) will surely lead to to an increase in card fraud. What's to stop someone jailbreaking an ipad, writing a custom fake ui, clipping in a square scanner, and writing off a days worth of cheap merchandise down at the park for a haul of card details…

> What's to stop someone ... writing off a days worth of cheap merchandise down at the park for a haul of card details?

The fact that stolen credit card numbers, even with a full billing address and CVV2 code are still only worth a couple dollars on the black market. Your setup wouldn't even capture that, so your merchandise is probably worth more than the numbers. And you're putting yourself at pretty serious risk of getting caught by running this scam in person, when it's much easier to do some kind of phishing scam online anonymously, with more valuable results.

Stolen credit card numbers just aren't very valuable. If you're not living in a nation with an ineffective or corrupt legal system, what are you going to do with the numbers without a high risk of getting caught? Making your own plastic cards and magnetic tracks is expensive and you end up on security camera video using them. Ordering anything tangible online means linking your fraud to your physical location one way or another. You can order a bunch of porn or other intangibles, but that's a pretty low reward for all the risk.

In the end, it's a moot point anyway. Normal credit card terminals can be bought on eBay for less than an iPad and can be used for card theft just the same.

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